This invention generally relates to a data processing station and to a method of operating a data processing station for processing and transmitting data between two devices.
Data processing stations are often employed to transmit and process data between two devices. For example, in a data processing system having a central control station and a multitude of peripheral devices, a respective one data processing station may be interposed between that central control station and each of the peripheral devices. The data processing station may be used to transform commands and messages from the central control station into the proper format for transmission to the specific peripheral device with which the data processing station is associated. The data processing station may also be used to monitor the performance of the peripheral device with which it is associated, and to transform data and messages from that peripheral device into the proper or preferred format for transmission to the central control station.
For many applications, it is desirable to separate the functions performed by such a data processing station into two groups--a first group of functions utilized to receive and transmit data between the data processing station and a first remote device, such as a central control unit, and a second group of functions utilized to receive and transmit data between the data processing station and a second device, such as a peripheral device connected to the interface station--and to provide a separate processor and separate control programs to control each of these two general groups of functions. With this arrangement, for example, each peripheral data processing station of a data processing system may be provided with a first identical processor and control program to control the transmission of data between the data processing station and the central control station, and a second processor and control program uniquely designed for use with the particular device connected to the data processing station. In order to do this, however, the two processors and the two control programs of each data processing station must themselves properly communicate and interact with each other.